


The Dark Cloud

by IJM



Category: General Hospital
Genre: Gen, Mentions Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 03:30:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15185789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IJM/pseuds/IJM
Summary: Scotty reacts to his conversation with Franco in the park.





	The Dark Cloud

**Author's Note:**

> Not for profit. No claim of ownership of characters.

Scotty went to Kelly’s to get a beer. He was feeling down, in a funk, like maybe part of his son’s dark cloud was now over his head.  _Maybe it should be. Maybe Franco can be the child I don’t lose,_ he thought. Logan and Karen were dead. Serena and Christina were on the other side of the Atlantic.

His son, yet another he had never known, had fallen prey to a sexual predator. He had not pressed for an answer, but what did Franco mean when he said “little kid”?

Franco was so messed up when he came to Port Charles. Had the man abused him a long time? How severe was it? The roads Franco had taken in life left Scotty no hope that he had not suffered deeply. How could fate be so cruel as to also give him a massive tumor on his brain as well?

 “I don’t know why Franco does what Franco does,” he had told Elizabeth before. It was a lot to take in, but the puzzle pieces that made up his son were starting to fall into place. He had never had a positive male influence. He learned not to trust when he was a “little kid.” The words stung him. Franco had learned fear, self-doubt, shame, lost touch with reality, and repressed his rage until it came out in his art. That man had created the dark cloud. Somehow he was going to fix it.

Serendipity was on his side. Elizabeth walked into Kelly’s to order takeout. He called her name and she joined him while waiting for her order.

“Can I get you a drink?”

“Hmm, better not.” Elizabeth answered. “Maybe you need to slow down too.” She nodded toward the two empty beer mugs already on the table. “Are you OK?” She asked.

“No,” he answered.

“Is it Kiki’s case?” she whispered.

“Not really. I had a discussion with my son today that left me rattled.”

“Oh,” Elizabeth said slowly. “What was it about?”

“I’ll give you two guesses and one clue. He’s very upset about Kiki being the victim of a sexual predator.”

Elizabeth took a deep breath. She had been trying to get Franco to talk to his father, but he was obviously too ashamed or afraid. “How much did he tell you?” she asked.

“He didn’t tell me anything explicitly. He only told me he was ‘a little kid.’ And he repeated ‘a little kid.’ What does that mean, Elizabeth?” Scotty looked at her with a plea in his eyes.

“Way too young?” Elizabeth answered closing her eyes. The information was painful. It would be painful to Scotty.

“Look, I don’t want you to get in trouble with Franco. I don’t want you to betray him. I just want him to trust me so I can help him.”

“I understand,” Elizabeth said. “It took months of being triggered and haunted and going to therapy for him to even begin to find answers. It’s been a difficult journey. He wants to think he’s cured, but you don’t get cured from what he went through, you just move on – eventually.”

“How young?” Scotty asked. “Just tell me how young he was.”

Elizabeth bit her lip. She could tell Scotty was conflicted and hurting. “Like three or four years old when it started.”

Scotty grimaced. “How long?”

“Franco believes Jim moved on when he was aging out of his target group. So, we are guessing six or seven years.”

Scotty put his hand against his forehead. “A lot can happen in six or seven years. Jim Harvey?”

She nodded.

“I’d like to dig him up and kill him again. I have prosecuted people like him.” Scotty started. “I’ve questioned victims. There are so many things going through my mind, what these people do, how they scar  their victims for life. I need to know so I can help him.”

Elizabeth reached out her hand and took his. “He keeps the details close to his chest. Every once in a while, he mentions something when I don’t expect it or when he’s had nightmares.”

“Is he sleeping?”

“Franco eats. And Franco sleeps,” Elizabeth assured him. “I may be crossing a line, but I think Jim withheld food to make him weaker and…”

“Easier to violate?” Scotty filled in.

Elizabeth gave a light nod. “I used to think he just had a bottomless pit for his stomach and a really good metabolism. But I’ve learned that everything about that man is layer upon layer upon layer.”

“Do you think he’ll ever trust me, really trust me to talk to me and let me help him however I can?”

“Only if you push, but not too hard. He is still convinced no one will believe him, even though Jim Harvey admitted it to his face. I don’t think he wants anyone he knows to look at him and see that anyway. He wants to talk to the boys, but only if we can find an unassuming way that doesn’t point to him as a victim.”

“In this world, that’s a good idea. How bad was it?” Scotty finally asked out right.

Elizabeth studied the table, walking that line between love and betrayal. “From what I know… bad, ongoing, frequent, brazen.” She looked up. “And I don’t even know what he’s keeping inside.”

Her name was called to get an order. 

“Thanks,” Scotty said.

“You know he loves you, right?” Elizabeth asked.

“But he doesn’t trust me.”

“Or anyone else.”

“He trusts you.” 

“I have an advantage over you,” Elizabeth told him. “Intimacy. The way it should be.”

“He’s a lucky man to have you.”

“We were made for each other. He’s my true soulmate.”

“If I can help…” Scotty offered.

“I’ll call you,” Elizabeth promised. “And if he tells me he let you in a little bit, I’ll encourage him to let you in some more.”

“Thank you for loving my boy,” Scotty said.

Elizabeth kissed his cheek. “Thank you for loving him too. Love is the only thing that will ever make this better.”

Scotty watched Elizabeth pick up her order and he asked the server for a fourth beer. The cloud over his head was getting darker, the more he knew.

 

End

 

Notes: Written under influence of pain medication, a sedative, and a voracious need for a taco. 

 

 

 

 


End file.
